Moving on to PC for the next review. My first PC was a generic PC/XT which I believe had an 8088 processor. After this I upgraded to a PC/AT which was an 80286. Keep in mind these computers were likely 5-7 years old before I got my hands on them. I don’t recall on which of those computers, or when in the time stream I played this game – but here we are to discuss and so we shall.
I recall playing this game with the good ol’ PC squeaker for sound effects. Super high pitched pew pew sounds and music. I feel bad for the music when I play this game because every time I fire my eye lasers the music has to stop. Sorry game music – I’ll just let you play for a few minutes in the background while I write, how about that?
In my nostalgia storehouse this game stands out to me as a really good and quite long game that I enjoyed quite a bit. As I watch the play-through here (this is the famicom version, but the gameplay is similar to the PC version which can be found here on archive.org. Also I did not watch 100% of this video, 4 hours? wooo!) I am able to recall this was played when my computer was in the living room and we were watching reruns of The A-Team. We had a family A-Team night on Friday nights I think? Where we watched the episodes we taped off of the TV from the week. It was quite fun for a wee lad and really I’ve not changed much of how I operate to this day. Binge watching shows while gaming is one of my most favorite pastimes.
Moving on, the game centers on a transforming robot that reconfigures himself as a jet. Jet mode is a bit confusing to control in the beginning and fairly unforgiving in that you un-transform if you so much as look at something funny. Eye beams are the weapon here and they auto target when in robot mode and shoot straight ahead while in jet mode. You’ve got a single bar for both health and pew pew energy so you’ve got to be a bit strategic in your use of the laser. Some of the things you can destroy give you energy back, so it’s worth seeking those out in every level.
There are secret hidden places as I recall, though I didn’t personally find any when I attempted to play this on archive.org. I didn’t give it much time as my patience for trying things over and over has whittled away over the years. You’ll want to seek those out to ensure that you’re keeping the robot fellow fully charged.
You also have shields you can use which are helpful but take energy to activate. Further complicating the gameplay and frustrating adult me. It sort of looks in the famicom version there as though there is some sort of end boss style thing but it didn’t look terribly difficult. I don’t recall ever having reached that area myself.
My recollection of this game was fairly accurate as I played and watched it. It really is a good game for the era. It was re-released with enhanced graphics on the PS3 as well. I may pick this version up at some point down the road and give it a play through.
This game would make a good candidate for timed speed runs in my opinion. Not that I’m into, or capable of the level of patience needed, for something like that. Someone out there should totally do that though!
That’s all I have for today. You take care of yourself!
-NG
